I felt powerless for the first time in years. Small. Mortal. The sensation clawed at my chest like a living thing, awakening fears I'd buried beneath crown and conquest.
We cannot lose her!
The king's voice—my voice, the voice that had commanded armies and toppled kingdoms—meant nothing here. In this place where ancient magic held sway, where the air breathed with power, I was reduced to what I'd always feared being: just a man stumbling in the dark.
Mist filled my lungs with each ragged breath I took, tasting of lake water and something else—something wild and untamed that made the dragon stir uneasily in its cage of flesh and bone. My fingers clawed desperately at nothing but emptiness, grasping for any solid thing in this world turned white.
Breathe our fire.
Burn the fog away,the dragon commanded again, insistent.
I resisted. Leaning into the beast was dangerous—each time I surrendered control, it became harder to reclaim. But she was escaping.
Do not allow her to flee!
My fists clenched. Then, slowly, deliberately, I lowered the walls I'd spent years building.
The dragon surged forward with savage joy, scales rippling beneath my skin in phantom sensation. Heat flooded my veins, scorching through muscle and bone until my blood felt like molten gold. The dragonmark on my chest blazed with sudden fire, the ancient tattoo writhing as if the creature itself moved beneath my flesh.
I exhaled.
Not breath—flame.
Gold and crimson fire erupted from my lungs, rolling outward in waves that devoured the unnatural mist. The fog recoiled, hissing as it burned away, retreating from the inferno that poured from within me. Embers danced through the air like fireflies as the fog disintegrated.
The lakeshore materialized through thinning smoke.
But it was empty.
She was already gone.
Hunt her,the dragon snarled, fury igniting every nerve.Find her. Make her submit.
The dragon's fury became mine, indistinguishable from my own rage. My hands shook with the need to pursue, to chase her into whatever shadows had swallowed her whole.
Rally the guard,the beast commanded, its voice no longer separate but woven into my thoughts.
I drew in breath—felt the dragon's power coil in my chest like smoke before a flame—and released it not as fire but as sound. My voice erupted from my throat, amplified a hundredfold, carrying across the distance between lake and castle with supernatural force.
"GUARDS!" The word thundered through the night, shaking leaves from branches. "TO THE LAKE! NOW!"
The command would reach every corner of Camelot, penetrating stone walls and wooden doors as if they didn't exist.
"Find a servant girl with white hair." My voice cracked like lightning. "Bring her to me.ALIVE."
The last word hung in the air, sharp with warning.
I stood there, chest heaving, watching mist curl away from the water's edge.
Somewhere in that darkness, she was escaping.
But she wouldn't get far.
I breathed out the dragon's fire once more, and the last wisps of fog dissolved into nothing. But she was already gone.
I should have killed her when I had the chance.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
